2016 Forster Kirchenstuck Grosses Gewachs

Toasted peanut, ripe peach and black pepper – together with hints of resin from barrel – make for a forceful aromatic impression. The feel is glycerol-rich but with underlying firmness, the flavors lusciously peachy but piquantly pit-tinged, and there are site-typical inner-mouth suggestions of musky, decadent floral perfume (in this case tending toward narcissus). Pungent green herbs and zesty lime lend invigoration to a vibrant, multifaceted finish, if not one quite as dynamic, juicy or mouthwatering as that of the corresponding Pechstein. As for the future in bottle, both sites have a history of raising long-distance runners – as, for that matter, does Jesuitengarten – so it should make for quite a race. That having been said, I remain conservative in my numerical prognostications because the oldest Grosse Gewächse rendered under the new Von Winning regime are only now approaching a decade in bottle, and a couple of those that I have recently been privileged to taste (both of which happen to have been Deidesheimers) are showing so well that I wonder whether they won’t be best enjoyed over the next several years.